Hyper Preterists Propose Too Much With Luke 21:22

By Adam Naranjo

I was listening to some James Jordan tapes, and he brought up Luke 21:22, which says, “because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.” I was thinking about how hyper-Preterists (who, among other things, believe that ALL biblical prophecy was fulfilled by a.d. 70, including the resurrection of the dead) are always banging the gong of Luke 21:22 saying, “See! All things will be fulfilled.” Hyper-Preterists argue that our Lord is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem and the harsh tribulation preceding it in His sermon in Luke 21. The fact is, I agree with the fact that Christ was referring to the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. Without a doubt Christ was clear as crystal when he said, “THESE” are the days of vengeance - he really was talking about those days in which his listeners lived. (I suggest you read the whole chapter if you aren’t familiar with the it.

Luke 20:20″But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. 21″Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; 22because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. 23″Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; 24and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Clearly Christ was speaking of ad. 70, when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman armies for about 3 years, and suffered great tribulation, famine, earthquakes, etc. They were being judged by God for breaking the covenant, and rejecting Christ. Faithful Israel (made up of both Jews and Gentiles in the New Covenant) headed the words of Christ and escaped to the mountains. This wasn’t a world wide tribulation, but a localized tribulation, on unfaithful Israel (who according to Paul in Galatians 4 were no longer Israelites). Most Premillennialists even agree with us Preterists on this passage - that Christ was speaking of the great tribulation of Jerusalem during it’s siege and destruction by the Roman armies.

However, I disagree with hyper-Preterists in that I don’t believe that ALL prophecy was fulfilled by ad. 70 (including the resurrection and final judgment). (hyper-Preterists deny a physical resurrection) I believe that hyper-Preterists are wrong in this respect because their view does not fit with the teaching of scripture. Their view is in disagreement with ALL of the orthodox creeds which uniformly profess faith in the resurrection of the BODY yet to come. Also, their typical take on Luke 21:22 proves FAR to much - in other words, if taken to it’s logical conclusion their understanding of Luke 21:22 would become absurd.

If these hyper Preterists want to take “all” - in “so that all things which are written will be fulfilled” - to mean literally every single prophecy (which is necessary for their interpretation of this passage) they would be bound to say that all of the prophecies in scripture were fulfilled at the destruction of the temple - including prophecies that don’t at all refer to those days of vengeance. Let me put it this way: In order for them to defend their understanding of this passage they have to make the referent of “all” to be every ‘prophecy in scripture’ (other wise the referent could be too narrowly defined), otherwise one may assume the obvious - that Christ doesn’t mean EVERY single prophecy, he means only those prophecies that pertain to the tribulation and destruction of the temple. If they will agree that “all” must be understood in the light of the rest of the teaching of scripture, then we might make some headway. However, I find that far too often they start with this passages as a foundational argument proving that all of the prophecies must have been fulfilled by end of these “days of vengeance”. If they really want “all” to mean “every single prophecy” (so that they can argue that ALL prophecy was fulfilled and that there will be no second advent of Christ, resurrection, or final judgment in the future) then they must be willing to say that all prophecy - everything! - was fulfilled during these times of vengeance. It’s all in how they’re using the word “all”.

They would never argue this way - and for good reason. Instead they would want to say that “all” refers to some specific prophecies, not ALL prophecy. At this point we can agree…the question is WHICH prophecies. It cannot be ALL of them, because this would lead to the completely absurd situation I referred to earlier. Never the less, I’ve read and heard hyper-Preterists make these simple linguistic mistakes. Every word has a referent and if they want ‘all’ to really refer to ‘all’ without distinction they would be left with an absurd proposal wherein they would prove far to much.

as of 2-2007

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